UPSC IAS Exam Pattern

Get the latest UPSC IAS Exam Paper patterns, examination durations, marks for each paper & more information on all Civil Services Exam Patterns.

Civil Service Examination Pattern for IAS

The pattern of Civil services examination has been designed to test the academic expertise of a candidate and that candidate’s ability to present himself/herself in a systematic and coherent manner. The examination pattern intends to assess the overall intellectual traits and understanding level of the candidates.

The UPSC Civil Services Exam is conducted in two stages namely, Prelims and Mains, which are then followed by an interview.  

Scheme and subjects for the Preliminary and Main Examinations are as follows:

UPSC Civil Services Prelims Exam Pattern (400 Marks)

• The IAS Preliminary exam consists of two papers – General Studies and Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT). 
• Both the question papers will be of the objective type (multiple choice questions).
• The duration of the exam is two hours.
• Paper-2 (CSAT) in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination is a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.
• The Prelims consists of two papers of 200 marks each
• The question papers will be set in both Hindi and English. However, questions related to English Language Comprehension skills would be provided only in English.
• Blind candidates would be allowed an extra 20 minutes of time for each paper  

UPSC Civil Services Main Exam Pattern (2025 Marks)

• Candidates who qualify Preliminary exam are called for the Main exam and on the basis of marks secured in the Main exam, they will be called for Interview
• The total marks of the Main exam and Interview sum up to produce the final result

The written examination consists of the following papers:

Paper	Subject	Total Marks
Paper A	One of the Indian Language to be selected by the candidate from the Languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution	300 Marks
Paper B	English	300 Marks
	Papers to be counted for Merit (Ranking)
Paper-I	Essay	250 Marks
Paper-II	General Studies-I (Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society)	250 Marks
Paper-III	General Studies-II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations)	250 Marks
Paper-IV	General Studies-III (Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management)	250 Marks
Paper-V	General Studies-IV (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude)	250 Marks
Paper-VI	Optional Subject-Paper 1	250 Marks
Paper-VII	Optional Subject-Paper 2	250 Marks
Sub Total (Written Test)		1750 Marks
Personality Test		275 Marks
Grand Total		2025 Marks

Note:

Candidates may choose any one of the optional subjects from amongst the list of subjects mentioned below:

Language	Script
Assamese	Assamese
Bengali	Bengali
Gujarati	Gujarati
Hindi	Devanagari
Kannada	Kannada
Kashmiri	Persian
Konkani	Devanagari
Malayalam	Malayalam
Manipuri	Bengali
Marathi	Devanagari
Nepali	Devanagari
Odia	Odia
Punjabi	Gurumukhi
Sanskrit	Devanagari
Sindhi	Devanagari or Arabic
Tamil	Tamil
Telugu	Telugu
Urdu	Persian
Bodo	Devanagari
Dogri	Devanagari
Maithili	Devanagari
Santhali	Devanagari or Olchiki

For Santhali language, the question paper will be printed in Devanagari script; but candidates will be free to answer either in Devanagari script or in Olchiki.

List of optional subjects for Main Examination:

Subject

Agriculture

Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science

Anthropology

Botany

Chemistry

Civil Engineering

Commerce and Accountancy

Economics

Electrical Engineering

Geography

Geology

History

Law

Management

Mathematics

Mechanical Engineering

Medical Science

Philosophy

Physics

Political Science and International Relations

Psychology

Public Administration

Sociology

Statistics

Zoology

Literature of any one of the following languages: (Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English)